BUSINESS
CULTURE RESEARCH PAPER
Throughout the past few years, there have been a lot of
changes in business, particularly in their company’s culture. Instead of having
a controlled structural leadership, business nowadays prefers having a more
laid- back, creative, and innovative set up in their leadership management
structure. However, Amazon ranked from the Fast Company as the “world’s most
innovative company in 2017”, still keeps the old-fashioned compete and control the type of company and leadership culture. In this paper, we will find out more
about why Amazon could be identified as a combination of control and
competitive business culture and how the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has a
commanding leadership style.
First,
Amazon falls under the combination of both control and competitive business
culture. Control business culture focused on “assessing and measuring,
controlling processes, structuring, efficiency improvement, or quality
enhancement” (Cameron, 1999). While the competing business culture focused on
“competitiveness, fast response, decisiveness, driving through barriers, or
goal achievement” (Cameron, 1999). Amazon is a face-paced driven company with
the expectation of keeping the customer satisfied. “In fact, Amazon.com did
grow fast, reaching 180,000 customer accounts by December 1996, after its first
full year in operation, and less than a year later, in October 1997, it had
1,000,000 customer accounts” (Hall 2018). From the statistical data, we can see
that Amazon gains customer accounts very fast and they didn’t get there easily;
it’s all done with a competing and controlling company structure. Every little
thing from the employee’s time schedule, expectations, and management structure
are all calculated in advance to ensure that everything works as efficiently as
possible. Blazek (2016), author of Jeff
Bezos: How His Unique Leadership Style Set Amazon Apart noted, “Everyone at
the company was working until two or three in the morning to get the books
shipped. Mr. Bezos had neglected to order packing tables, so people ended up on
their knees on the concrete floor to package the books.” The management had high expectations for the
employee and this brings us to the next part of the paper, the leadership
style.
Jeff
Bezos, the CEO, and founder of Amazon is the main organizational leader that
keeps Amazon at the top of the market. Although he may look calm and
affiliative leader at first, in reality, he is a very commanding leadership
style. Blazek (2016) says, “They (specialized employees to answer emails) were
each expected to answer 12 emails per minute and could possibly be fired when
that number dropped below 7.” Bezos has a very powerful stance, gives clear and
decisive directions, and expects full compliance for the employees. All his
actions are based on the Amazon satisfaction metrics, which is “the customer is
king.” “(T)the No. 1 thing that has made us successful by far is an
obsessive-compulsive focus on the customer as opposed to obsession over the
competitor," Bezos said in a talk at the Economic Club of Washington on
September 13. Hence, Jeff Benzos' style
in leadership is a commanding leader with his goal of satisfying the customers.
Doing
all the research and evaluation of Amazon, I find that the company’s
combination of control and competitive business culture might fit me quite
well. Based on my experience during the Management class, I realize that I’m a
very organized person that might sometimes be quite competitive. I believe that
working in control and compete for business would actually push me to maximize my
strengths more. Whereas the leadership style that Bezos has is also my kind of
leadership style that I would thrive under. I prefer a commanding leadership
type above an affiliative leadership type. As I said before, being organized is
one of my powerful traits and therefore having a leader who has a clear and
decisive direction would fit me well.
In conclusion, Amazon is an organization that is based on a combination of control
and competition for the type of business culture. Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, has a
commanding leader type. Thus, I think that working in Amazon is a workplace
that I could thrive for because I’m an organized and dedicated person. In
addition to this, I feel that I’m in the right position because I’m enrolled in
a business program. The fast-paced market competition is interesting; it’s one
thing that I look forward to. I also hoped that with the faith that I have now,
I could be a light on the business world.
Works Cited
Blazek, K. (2016).
Jeff Bezos: How His Unique Leadership Style Set Amazon Apart. Retrieved from https://www.truscore.com/360-feedback-resources/jeff-bezos-leadership-style/
Cameron, K.
(1999). DIAGNOSING AND CHOOSING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE: An Introduction to
Competing Values Framework, 1-4.
Hall, M. (2018).
Amazon.Com: American Company. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amazoncom
Robischon, N.
(2017). Why Amazon is the World’s Most Innovative Company. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/3067455/why-amazon-is-the-worlds-most-innovative-company-of-2017
Tatu, R. (2014). ON THE SHELF: Keep the Customer Satisfied. ASEE
Prism, 23(7), 044-044.
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